Enzyme

In the 1990s, the lab of Frances Arnold showed how we can turn evolution to our advantage by manipulating microbes into evolving in a certain way. Now Arnold's team is using the technique to develop new antibiotics.

The CRISPR gene-editing system is usually known for helping scientists treat genetic diseases, but the technology has a whole range of possible uses in synthetic biology too. Now researchers at ETH Zurich have used CRISPR to build functional biocomputers inside human cells.

CRISPR-Cas9 acts like a pair of molecular scissors and enables precise cut-and-paste DNA edits. But now, researchers have developed a new genetic tool that, they say, acts more like a motorized DNA “shredder.”

Given the chance, very few of us wouldn’t want to slow down the aging process. Chasing that fountain of youth is a major branch of medical science at the moment, and now, a team at Scripps Research has found that blocking a particular enzyme can extend the lifespan of worms by almost half again.

In the world of gene-editing, CRISPR and Cas9 usually go hand in hand, but that might not necessarily be the best pairing. Now, researchers at UC Berkeley have tested a new candidate, CasX, which seems to have a few advantages of its own.

Although Cas9 has been the go-to enzyme for gene-editing, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best option. Now a team of scientists, including the co-creator of CRISPR, has engineered a more precise enzyme, known as Cas12b.

With Christmas just behind us and New Year’s around the corner, many are familiar with the effects of alcohol, but how it works in the brain is still shrouded in mystery. Now scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have discovered a new step in the intoxication process – by getting flies drunk.

Researchers at the University of Queensland have looked to the past to help with the future of biochemistry, resurrecting enzymes from almost half a billion years ago to fill in where current ones can’t.

New research has revealed a promising new candidate to help smokers kick their damaging addiction. An enzyme has been engineered that can gobble up nicotine in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain, with the compound proving to be incredibly successful in early animal tests.

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists who tapped into evolution to produce vital chemicals. It was awarded to Frances H. Arnold for directing the evolution of enzymes, and to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter, who manipulated phages to create new antibodies.